But another significant reason for a lack of assurance in believers is the tendency to measure their justification by their sanctification. They become like Peter who when walking on the water began to sink into the sea when he took his eyes off of Jesus. They forget that although a true believer is redeemed, justified and renewed, he is also a sinner, and remains a sinner as long as he is in this present world. Justification is a finished work which requires no effort or contribution on the believer’s part. There are no degrees of justification. The weakest believer is as fully justified as the strongest saint.
Sanctification, however, is a life-long process, an incomplete and imperfect work. J. C. Ryle wrote that Christians who measure their acceptance by God “appear to expect that a believer may at some period of his life be in a measure free from corruption, and attain to a kind of inward perfection. And not finding this angelic state of things in their own hearts, they at once conclude there must be something very wrong in their state. And so, they go mourning all their days – oppressed with fears that they have no part or lot in Christ, and refusing to be comforted… If any believing soul desires assurance, and has not got it, let him ask himself, first of all, if he is sound in the faith, if he knows how to distinguish things that differ, and if his eyes are thoroughly clear in the matter of justification. He must know what it is simply to believe and to be justified by faith before he can expect to feel assured.”
The Apostle Paul was in possession of assurance of grace and salvation as evidenced by his proclamation that for him, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain… for I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:21, 23). And yet, there appeared to be times when in looking at himself he could only say, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells… for the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice… O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:18,19). The process of sanctification for the Apostle was a spiritual battle, a true conflict against the remnants of sin that remained in his “body of sin.”
Paul went on to answer his own question by writing, “I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! …There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 7:19; 8:1). Having just written what he did in chapter seven, he was not implying that by being in Christ Jesus, he therefore never walked according to the flesh. He was an ongoing sinner and he knew it. He was essentially stating that his new life in Christ Jesus was such that he knew he was justified, and that another feature of his new life in Christ Jesus was his sanctification whereby he was able to work out his salvation with fear and trembling, to be diligent in making his call and election sure, and to walk according to the Spirit, because God was working in him both to will and to do for God’s good pleasure. Paul was able to see that his justification and his sanctification were two inseparable yet distinct features of his new life in Christ. By faith, he embraced Jesus Christ for pardon from sin, but he knew his Christian experience of sanctification would be one of spiritual conflict and struggle with all of its ups and downs.
Peter’s exhortation to his readers to add to their faith virtue, knowledge, etc., was not with a view to setting an expectation that these characteristics would be perfectly realized in this life. His concern was that true believers not rest satisfied with only the beginnings of these graces. He was urging them to diligently exercise and improve them. He wrote, “Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you…” (2 Peter 1:13). This experience of the emergence and increase of these graces would serve to increase their confidence that they were true recipients of grace and salvation. However, one must, like Paul, be aware that the attainment of these graces in this life is at best incomplete, imperfect and often accompanied with sinful failure. One must not rely solely on a satisfactory self-examination for one’s confidence. We must be careful when we are only looking to the subjective evidence of our works and the fruit of the Spirit for certainty of grace and salvation. Christ is the objective basis for assurance. John Calvin wrote, “Indeed, if we should have to judge from our works how the Lord feels toward us, for my part, I grant that we can in no way attain it by conjecture. But since faith ought to correspond to a simple and free promise, no place for doubting is left. For with what sort of confidence will we be armed, I pray, if we reason that God is favorable to us provided our purity of life so merit it?”
Indeed, may we by God’s grace be even more diligent to make our call and election sure.